Empathy Buddy Session 1: Introduction

EMPAThY So Funny I Forgot to Laugh

Materials

Arthur Character Cards: Arthur, Sue Ellen, Buster Vocabulary List (optional)

Objective: Students explore the interactive comic with buddies to help them gain an understanding of their own feelings, other's feelings, and different perspectives. Book Corner

Estes, Eleanor The Hundred Dresses Ferry, Beth Stick and Stone Henkes, Kevin A Weekend with Wendell Hughes, Shirley Alfie Gives a Hand Ludwig, Trudy The Invisible Boy Polacco, Patricia Mrs. Katz and Tush Yashima, Taro Crow Boy

(see Appendix, Recommended Books for more selections)

30–45

minutes

E MPAT h Y LITTLE B UDDY S ESSION 1: Introduction

Preview the story

Introduce the concept and main idea of the story. You might want to say: The online story you are going to read with your Big Buddy is called So Funny I Forgot to Laugh. There are three main characters in the story: Arthur, Sue Ellen, and Buster. Show Character Cards and/or project them on your whiteboard to help students remember the characters. Then you can say:

In the story, Arthur teases Sue Ellen about a sweater she is wearing. When you talk about the story with your Big Buddy, some of the things you’ll discuss are why kids tease each other, how teasing can make someone feel, and what you can do about teasing.

Introduce and discuss: empathy

So Funny I Forgot to Laugh will help students understand and practice empathy as they talk about Arthur’s behavior and how it makes Sue Ellen and the other characters feel. To introduce the topic, review a range of behaviors, from playful teasing to hurtful teasing to bullying. You might want to share a real-life experiences you or your students have had with bullying, teasing, or empathy. This can help students open up and feel comfortable talking about issues when they meet their Big Buddies. Use the definitions that follow to help students develop an understanding of these topics.

Teasing

Teasing can be playful when it’s just two friends goofing around. But sometimes teasing can go too far and it can turn into bullying. Playful teasing is when friends tease others equally, but when one person takes teasing too far and it starts to hurt the other person’s feelings then it can turn into bullying. If teasing happens over and over again, or if the person being teased can’t make it stop happening, then it becomes bullying.

Bullying

Bullying is when one person, or a group of people are mean or hurtful to another person over and over again and the person being bullied can’t make it stop. Bullying can be physical, like hitting, kicking, or shoving someone or it can be done with just using words, like saying mean things or calling someone a bad name. Leaving someone out or ignoring a person completely are other ways of bullying. Bullying can happen to anyone—between kids of the same age, different ages, kids who look the same, or kids who look different.

Empathy

Empathy is about understanding our own and other people’s feelings and points of view (perspectives). When you have empathy, you try to feel what someone else is feeling in order to show that you care about him or her. Sometimes you are able to put yourself in another person’s shoes or see something from that person’s point of view even without that person asking you to do that. When you are using empathy, you recognize what other people are thinking and how they are feeling.

Check student's understanding of the topics with open-ended questions such as: • What is teasing? What is bullying? What do you think is the difference?

•Do you think teasing is ok? Is there ever a time when teasing is not ok?

• Have you ever been teased or bullied?

Help students understand how these three concepts link together. Discuss how empathy can be important when other people's feelings might be hurt, like when they are being teased or bullied, you might say: Sometimes it’s important to stop and try to see a situation from another person’s point of view and to try to understand what he or she is feeling. Why do you think kids tease other kids?

How do you think someone feels when he or she is being teased? How would you feel if you were being teased or bullied? How do you feel when you see someone else being teased or bullied?

You may also want to introduce the concepts of apology and forgiveness as you explore elements in So Funny I Forgot to Laugh. Although students will focus on forgiveness later in the program you may want to link empathy with these topics by briefly discussing how empathy and perspective-taking can be used to help a person make a situation right. You might say: Everyone makes mistakes sometimes and hurts other people’s feelings. Have you ever been surprised that something you said or did hurt someone's feelings? How did you feel when you found out? Did you think about how it felt for him or her? What did you do to make the situation right? How did you feel after?

Explore vocabulary

You may want to define some of the vocabulary words students will encounter in the story (see Appendix for Vocabulary Lists). Remind them that they can always ask their Big Buddies about words they aren’t familiar with. In addition to the vocabulary in the story, encourage students to use as many different words as they can to describe their feelings. Refer back to the Feelings Chart as needed.

Review communication skills

Review what you previously discussed about how Little Buddies can communicate with their Big Buddies. You might say: Remember what we talked about last time about being good buddies? Who remembers some of the things you can do to show your buddy that you are listening? <pause for responses> Right! You can look at him or her. You can answer him when he or she asks you a question. Remember to listen carefully to your buddy and to the story. Ask questions if you don’t understand something. And remember to tell your buddy what you think. He or she really wants to know!